Apply the Golden Rule to Guest&nbspPosting

The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

"One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself."

The Golden Rule is the perfect thing to apply to your entire outreach process. From your writers and the people you are outreaching to, all the way to the content you are pitching, using the Golden Rule ensures that great content is produced for great sites, resulting in quicker responses and better return on investment for your client or company.

Minor rant on guest posting

As a whole, search marketers are known for taking a good marketing tactic and overdoing it to the point that the search engines stop trusting the signals. Think about it: directories, commenting, sponsorship, articles, blog rolls, footer links, and more.

Outreach is not a tactic; it is a relationship building strategy that has been around since we could communicate with each other. Guest posting, which is the standard product of outreach, is the tactic. Sadly, guest posting is on the border of being seen as poor a tactic as the ones above.

None of the things I listed above are bad, though. Not one. If each of those tactics were treated with respect when used for a client (aka if the Golden Rule is applied to them), they could be useful marketing tools. Here are a few examples.

Directories. A good directory that is helpful to a searcher is a great place to be placed and have a link to your website. For example, there is a grass fed beef directory. Does everyone need to be in that directory? Nope. But for people looking for farms that humanely treat their cattle and feed them naturally, it's a great resource.

Commenting. Most of my site's links are from commenting, but I don't try to link that way. What happens is I get a number of followed links on strong pages because I added thoughts to a well shared and commented on post. The comments are random because I don't comment for the links. Once you start *thinking* about it, it becomes an overused tactic.

True online marketing happens when good tactics are used as a part of the company's day-to-day activities, not as a part of the strategic marketing plan.

The writer/content producer

Disclaimer: This part is negated if you are the writer of the content you are pitching to the people you build relationships with. You would, of course, treat yourself the way you want to be treated.

I know many companies that have staff writers and outsourced freelance writers to produce content. Please treat these talented professionals as you would want to be treated if you were asked to write the content.

Wages

Application of the Golden Rule: Pay them the wage you would consider worthy of the time and effort needed to make the content perfect for the site in question.

You've spent so much time and effort to identify and build the relationship with your contact; you want the content to match that effort. The best relationships with the influencers of the web take time and effort, and you need the best content for those relationships.

If you are building relationships, or just emailing bloggers of sites that you don't deem worth this investment, do you really want a link from them? Do you really want your brand to be a part of their site? If they are worthy to get a link from, if their site and community are strong, they should be worthy of your best content. To get that, you should be treating the people writing and developing that content like the talented people they are and paying them for that talent.

Resources

Application of the Golden Rule: Give the writers the resources they need to create great content including the best information, time and contact with the site owner.

The best guest posts are personal and relatable; your audience knows something is genuine when they read it. The best content is created when the writer is in on the process. They need as much detail as they can get, including the site, topic, audience, and so much more. The best way of getting them this information is to put them in contact with the site owner directly. While I recommend having the writers as a part of your company, I know it's not always possible.

If you can hire them, internal writers know your company and products, and can easily be introduced after building the relationship with the site owner. When that isn't an option, ensure the writers have complete information and plenty of time to write a great article. If you want to take it a step further, consider getting your writer involved in the pitching process. It's amazing how much better the content is if the writer is the one chatting with the site owner and community.

For those of you wondering what type of information to give a writer, here are the points most important for freelance writers:

Article title

Description of topic - Use this to give the writer the an idea of the piece as you see it in your head.

Where (what site) the article is to be used?

Author attribution - Informing the author if they are to be credited allows them to know now personal the post should be and if they can use it in a portfolio in the future.

Purpose of article - Use to describe the goal of the article for the reader.

Sample work/similar articles - Provide URLs of other articles which you would can be used as resources or guides.

Research advice - Give the writer exact sources to use or general guidance. We sometimes use this to tell them what to avoid.

Audience - Demographics and other information on the audience of the site like location, age, sex, social group, level of knowledge of subject matter, actively seeking content or reading in passing, etc.

The blogger/contact

Treating the site owner the way you want to be treated seems like common sense, but this can come in many forms. You want to treat them as yourself throughout the whole process, and that means in all communication, the content you send them, the links you include, and where that link is placed.

The form of contact

Application of the Golden Rule: Don't send, call, or tweet until you're sure it's something you would want to hear.

You might contact a site owner by email, social media, phone, or meet them in person. No matter how you (or your employees) are contacting them or how far along you are in the relationship, think about how you communicate. The best way is to research the person before you contact them. Remember door-to-door salesmen? That's what this feels like:

There is a better approach when tweeting. As my co-worker Geoff puts it, read the blog first before you reach out. And treat them as human beings. Don't use templates, use your own personality.

The content

Application of the Golden Rule: Don't send out content you wouldn't put on your own site.

I have seen advice before to use your best work for your own blog which is good advice, but that doesn't mean you send out poor material to other sites. Site owners have worked hard to grow their site and community. For many of them, it's their full time job. If you want a high rate of return on the content you send out, honor that work with something you and they can be proud of. Don't make your writer do 5-6 posts a day like this poor guy.

Want something more specific? Check out this guide from our Head of Outreach, Adria Saracino. She'll send you a high-resolution copy to print and laminate for your desk if you ask nicely.

The link and link placement

How do you spot a guest post? There is link a in the bio of the writer with exact match anchor text. Maybe there is a single link in the top of the post with exact match anchor text. There are many ways to spot a guest post that is poorly done, but stay away from the most distinct signs:

Link in the bio with exact match anchor textFix: If you can only get a link in the bio, don't make it exact anchor text. No matter where they are, only put in links that make sense. The only links that make sense in the bio are to the writer's site or company homepage. Not the link you want? Maybe you need to post that content elsewhere, or forego the perfect link until you've built the relationship up.

Exact match anchor text to a commercial site with no contextFix: If you do place a link to a commercial site, client or not, ensure that it makes sense to the context of the post. If you as the reader came across that link, is there some reason to click on it? And is the corresponding page something that is useful to them? If not, don't add the link. Only link to things that make sense and are helpful to the reader. This means talking to the client and making their landing pages great before you start outreach and guest posting.

One link in the post to the author's company siteFix: Make sure you are linking to resources that are right for the content and users. Balancing links to your site and other sites not only looks more natural, it really is more natural. Don't be afraid to link to what is necessary. Remember that guest posting and outreach is not just for links, it's for branding, sales, and word of mouth.

The readers/community

The final application of the Golden Rule is to the readers and community of every site you work with. As a member of the SEOmoz community, would you be happy with a post written by someone who doesn't respond to your comments and questions? What about someone who includes links to things that make no sense in the context of the article you're reading? SEOmoz has a high bar of content for YouMoz, so that doesn't happen here.

The best guest posts you can get are those on sites with a great community. A good community means that there is value in the site and they are probably a well-ranked site. I haven't found a study that proves that a strong community means a strong site, but I am debating doing a study myself, so watch this space.

Regardless, it's a good rule to respect the readers as if you yourself were a reader. Think about what you would want to see as a reader. Give them that and watch your brand grow in the community, the guest posting opportunities grow, and your revenue grow in return.

Do you have any other applications for the Golden Rule when it comes to content and outreach? Leave them in the comments below!

About katemorris —

Kate Morris is the Director of SEO for Bluprint, an NBCUniversal company. She loves to teach through regular posting and speaking and has been in the industry for over 15 years.

Absolutely right about guest post not being just for earning links, but also about branding. You're golden rules seem to have hit the point. The point is the righteousness of every SEO tactic people use. This is what I've been trying to pitch across to the world! I guess guest posting needed a righteousness point to it, and you brilliantly completed it! A big thanks for including a link to my article there! :)

Respect others so that you can get the same... this is one
of the first rule of building relationships and communications. I really like
the similar kind of idea with guest blogging as guest blogging is one of the
best ways to improve communication and building relationships as well as
links...

Hi Kate- thanks for the great info! I love that you included the golden rule in here, because I think this is really important. I also agree that sometimes we forget the other uses of the links in Guest posts, like branding and sales. Great post, really interesting read.

Your post makes many great points, Kate. I'm bookmarking it in Evernote to share with my staff; I already know these bits of wisdom, but sometimes I have to try hard to remember that they don't know everything that I know, unless I tell them... your post makes such a good summary that it's worth keeping and sharing, so kudos to you! (I'll also be sharing your link via my social networks.)

The part of your article that I identified with the most is the way in which people reach out to me when they would like to publish a guest post on my blog. When the request comes in through the contact form on my site I know that they've at least visited (and probably read some content). I typically take a look at their work and have found a couple of people whose work I have approved. However, when people tweet at me with no prior introduction- I thank them for their tweet, but that's the only response they can expect. I got into social media because I'm such a great business networker in person and apply that knowledge online; I didn't get to where I am today by shoving my business card at people and walking away and don't tolerate that type of behavior in others, either!

Great post, Kate! Another thing I'm doing is telling writers in my outreach that I'm happy to include their Google+ profile link with rel=author if they have one...and then telling them to feel free to ask me if they don't know why that helps them. And on the other side--when I'm offering to write an article, I mention that once it's up on their site, I'll link to that article from my travel company site, plus my personal blog and my consulting site.

Excellent guest post Kate. I too use commenting as a tactic and also to build relationships. The golden rule is the essence of a good life in my opinion, regardless of the context.

I especially agree with your statement

"Pay writers a decent wage, not $4-6 per 250 word article."

For 2 reasons. First, it is the right thing to do. Second, you get what you pay for and in a post Panda/Penguin environment, anything but high quality content will likely have little value from a ranking/traffic standpoint, not to mention how it will tarnish your brand.

I would just like to add that I recieve 10+ guest post requests daily to my blog which is perfectly fine if they are high quality articles, but they are not!

I probably reject 9 out of 10 guest posts simply because they are badly written or have not kept to my guidelines.

I have had no choice but to implement a $10 admin charge as reviewing guest posts takes up to much time, I therefore only look at guest posts that have paid the admin fee which is refundable upon rejection. I am not looking to make a measley $10 but It's the only way I can stop these SPAMMERS (so called guest posters) and often from reputable SEO companies from emailing me.

While Kate has mentioned "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself." I often find myself holding back with outrage of the emails I recieve which is often along the lines of: Hi, As an avid reader of your blog bla bla bla I would like to contribute a guest post, but I can clearly see that the submitter has not even read my guestpost guidelines which is clearly available from every page of my blog.

I get so frustrated with all of this spam and am at the verge of no longer accepting guest posts which would be a real shame as I do appreciate a good guest post.

SEOMoz needs to stop talking about guest posting so much as I assure you the majority of people automate this process resulting in the modern day SPAM.

My guess is that the people submitting that type of spam aren't reading the SEOmoz blog. We get those submissions as well from people who have just joined the site the day they submit, click that they agree to the guidelines for posting, and then submit posts that clearly show they have not read the guidelines.

Hi Frank,I am really sorry about that. I actually wrote this post as an attempt to help people like you. I know the kind of emails you get and the content you get. It's why I brought up the Golden Rule to begin with. I hope it gets better for you.

I don't think guest posting will every get devalued quite as hard as directory links or commenting. Like you said, Kate, guest posts are a standard product of outreach. But I do think author bio links will come under more search engine scrutiny, just like linking with exact-match anchor text has.

Do you think resources like BloggerLinkUp and MyBlogGuest are adding fuel to the fire of tactic-overuse? Or are they helpful to the process by filtering out some of the more spammy guest post hosts? I know that the ladies running them (Cathy Stucker and Ann Smarty) work really hard to make sure their communities are built on quality relationships, authoritative offerings, etc. Do you use those tools?

I think places like MyBlogGuest can help the process of outreach, but they are hurting it as well. I have found some great sites through services like that but the best ones end up stopping in my opinion because the quality of the bulk of people on there is not high enough. But alas marketing is not easy and finding the good sites shouldn't be either. I do use those tools but not exclusively.

"As a whole, search marketers are known for taking a good marketing
tactic and overdoing it to the point that the search engines stop
trusting the signals." +100

Thanks for the great article, and for the rules, they do really work BUT.. what i see is that many great bloggers who accepted great guest posts in the past for free, do that only for a certain fee (high enough) now . And they do it when they see that you're going to include somewhere is the article a link back to a commercial site. I mean when you're asking them if they accept guest posts (done in a personal approach manner) their answer is that if you're linking to a commercial site - they do it only for a fee.

Did anyone here noticed that "Paid only guest posts" trend? (at least in the finance niche)

That's the interesting other side of the coin to a "tactic" becoming popular. The people you want something from realize you want that one thing, so they start charging for it. No one can blame them. Want to know how to get around it? Let's say you want a crochet infinity scarf, you can get one in the store for $19.99, on Etsy for $9.00, or ... if a friend knows how to crochet, for free. Want to get some real links from guest posts? That's where building the relationship comes in. Sending an email is not a relationship. Tweeting someone once is not building a relationship. Using a list of 100 people is not relationship building. If you take time to build those relationships, you can most likely post as a favor for your friend.

What if you only spent your time writing and publishing amazing content that speaks to the audience you want to target? I suppose you could argue that one should be doing both -- producing great content AND guest blogging -- but for those of us who work in a small or medium sized business environment there's only enough time & resources to do one really, really well - and so I am dedicating 100% of my time to building the best content & audience in our niche and have blown off guest blogging completely.At the end of the day the only way to gain links/social mentions that truly scales AND is update-proof is to concentrate great content on YOUR site, not anyone else's. Guest blogging is a resource luxury I feel only the biggest online marketing teams can afford yet EVERYONE invests in it.

Thanks for the idea Kate, i got your point, and it seems pretty logical :)

I'm struggling with the timing problem (probably i'm not the only one) but in the end, if you don't have time to establish real relationships with people, why should they have time to publish your articles for free.

As we become more and more Google puppets every day, its clear to see that the SEO they insist on dedicating is clearly not for "small businesses". Quality wins over quantity every time but how are others not in the "No" to know this? I feel sorry for the small business out there that got hammered and have no idea how to recover.

I am totally confused why guest posting is getting so much importance. According to me, guest posting are the latest marketing strategy to ear some bucks. I am sure after some time Google will penalize all those website which are offering Guest posting facilities.

Hi Nazre,I understand and share the same feelings. But alas as a consultant, this is what gets asked about the most because it's the "shiny new thing." This post was all about getting people to think about guest posting back on earth rather than in the clouds. It's not scalable and shouldn't be. Google will not penalize people that offer guest posts, the intent behind the act is still good, but there are a number of signals of bad posts (a few I mention above) that will result in the severing of link equity from the post to any site it links to. Not a penalty, but bad posts will stop working.

Katei agree with your pints, actually these days i am thinking all about Google Algorithm. It is changing day by day, now its totally unpredictable that which activity will be more effective and for how long. Even we don't know that if some thing is counted ethical today will be ethical tomorrow also. I predict all about the Guest Posting just because of the fact that Google is changing the algorithm rapidly and we can't concentrate on any of the strategy.

My point is that you shouldn't think about the algo everyday. You should be thinking about your business and customers everyday. Things that are "ethical" to SEs do not change, there are no "bad" tactics if the intent behind them is to help searchers find what they want. It's what people turn the tactics into that is what Google hates. Stop thinking about the algo and you'll be fine.

Surely it will penalize (or simply discount) all the backlinks from so called guest post portals, which nothing are but masked "article marketing" ones.Obviously Kate was not referring to them, but to work in order to obtain the opportunity of guesting a post or an article or an essay in sites visited by the target of your site.It is not just a question of getting a dofollow link, that - somehow - is the less important derivate (but, yes, still important). The most important thing is that that post can give you the opportunity to be in front of your target, making yourself been discovered by it and, so, having it visiting and - possibly - converting into your site and becoming new returning visitors.

I see from other comments that some people are wary of guest posting, but it's all about establishing reciprocity with a trusted site. If they run a spammy blog you don't want to participate. I saw a video where Matt Cutts said that guest posting is a good thing but it can be abused and Google is working on ways to detect such abuse. Stick to sharing quality content with another blog that produces quality content and you'll be fine.

Hi Kate, thanks for linking to my recent post on the WordStream blog! I agree with you that guest posting as an SEO tactic isn't inherently good or bad. The reason we're easing up on it lately is because a) we don't have enough content producers on staff to create great content for own blog and guest post too, so we have to choose our battles, and b) we've gotten to a point of diminishing returns after guest posting for years. We do still keep our eyes out for amazing opportunities to contribute a post, and make the effort when we think it's worth it.

The Golden Rule works for almost everything, doesn't it? Thanks again!

the Kate,I very much appreciate this post. Especially the points about knowing the audience, paying the writers well, including them in the outreach process and environmental linking. It feels like all those things should be obvious, but based on the guest posts I've seen lately...it's just not. It's also funny to see some of the replies here. It's good to get the perspective from the people that are filling up my inbox with messages like:

Hi,My name is Brianne Walter and I am a writer and a blogger. I'm gettingin touch to ask if you're open to reviewing content from Guest Posts.If so, I'd love to put together a high-quality article writtenspecifically for your site.There is absolutely no charge for this and no strings attached; theonly thing I ask in return is one do follow link to the sites of mychoosing within the article or in Author Bio- nothing shady orunethical, just one of the professional businesses I freelance for.Here are few ideas that I think your readers would love:1. SEO: A complete overview of Article Rewriter Tool , how it works?2. Top 5 tips for stumped people to start on-line marketing3. Reason to know"Why internet speed is necessary for WordPress"Do let me know if you want me to work on any other topic. Will behappy to see if we can work on it.Do let me know if you're interested, and if so I can get the topicselected by you written over the course of the next few days.Regards,Brianne Walter

Great example of what to include when requesting an article from a writer. Obviously the more info and resources you can give a writer, the better the final result. We have a similar template we use when request articles which I've tweaked slightly now, thanks!

Hello, kate. thanks for this wonderful post, I have just started guest posting and I must say that it's not an easy thing as I have to make contact to the admins and they convinced hardly to approve our post as some web admins have made strict rules for guest posting which is an annoying thing for today's world. But I would say that remembering your golden rules can help me a lot to start in a new way..Thanks again, I am following you for more updates and lovely articles..

This is really true. As algorithms have leveled up arbitrary same keyword approach into more contextual settings, the guest posting aspect should also follow. Guest posts should already be based on traditional marketing standards.

Great post! :) How (apart from simply ignoring them) .. do you deal with emails (which we get each day) asking to guest post because 9 times out of ten, what these people send to me is either spun or just simply rubbish? Surely guest posting also is against google TOS? What i mean is , recently on search engine round table there was the phrase .............."What is Google's view on guest blogging for links?"I am not sure why he just didn't say it outright - if you are guest blogging just for links, then don't do it.......said matt cutts. So unless you are a really famous guest blogger, 99% of teh time, people will only make the effort to blog for you if they get something out of it, i.e. a link!

There are actually people out there that are guest posting for links, but do create good content. Don't count everyone out. The way I weed through emails is looking at the email. If the emailer spent time to read my blog, and write a well thought out email, then that will translate into good content. If the email is form written, has poor grammar, etc. then I expect that the piece will be bad as well. Not all guest posting is bad.

i know! Guest blogging in theory, is great, and I would love someone professional to guest blog on my site, but if they don't do it for a backlink, usually because someone else is paying them to write on targeted sites, then why would they do it in the first place? Someone has to have a good REASON to approach you to blog for you, and if it's not a link, or payment, violating Google TOS, then.............!!!!!!???? Confused!

Those are some really fantastic golden rules which one should apply. I'm feeling guilty now because I didn't give my writer enough resources like you've mentioned. I used to give her only Article Title, Keywords, URL & the article words which is very wrong from my end. Due to which she never wrote good article & I always said to write again.

I love your use of "The Golden Rule" here and it definitely can be applied to guest posts. It seems like people would rather take the "throw anything and everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach, rather than putting some effort into forming a legitimate relationship or connection. It doesn't take long to actually read a post on the site and make a small comment on it. I think part of the problem is that so much of SEO has become quantity over quality which needs to change. Eventually, no matter what the situation quality always wins over quantity- just ask General Motors.

Its best to focus your effort to find relevant guest blogging opportunities. Fewer and more relevant are always better! Plus they will stand the test of time with Google.Guest Posting is really the wave of the future, but please don't try and spam or use duplicate content. Big brother is always watching.

Whether the whole world is loosing the trustTrust is the most important unit in relationshipEach and every business and deals taking place as part of relationship

What to do if the trust fails, it will surely lead to disintegration of relationship(Sorry I have learned all the above info from by Sociology studies Like Aron Wheeler of SEOMoz family [http://www.seomoz.org/team/aaron] I first learned Sociology before SEO)

But some points in the post really made me sad, what to say really agony.

If Google loose trust in their signals ...........

If search engine users loose trust one the results ............

If our boss and website owners loose trust on us..............

If we (SEO) ourselves loose trust on us ...................

Nothing to imagine

Because Trust has that much most important role. Because trust is one in which confidence is placed.

Trust assures the reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something

Again come back to Sociology....

There we studied If family disintegration will lead to divorce, Individual disintegration may lead to suicide....

Let us be faithful, responsible to our career, our work, to the website owners.

I wish to say Youmoz community for tuning more motivational stuff in upcoming posts (plz book most motivational and counseling persons to come with good write ups ) Many many desperate SEOs may come in the Q....

I personally believe that personal outreach is a lot better than sending out bulk emails or tweets in the hope of getting responses.But, then again, there is a problem of scale - how do you effectively scale with personal outreach?I like to think of my guest posts as something so well written that I'd want to share it with my own network and something that they'd find valuable - most people don't care about that and end up writing "conveyor belt" posts just for search engines.

Great post Kate! As Google gives more importance to content mainly for "queries which deserve freshness" (QDF) and as marketing is becoming a game of outreach and relationship earning/building, making guest posting as part of a marketing strategy as it is certainly becoming one of the best practices for relationship building, for generating user engagement, improving brand value and presence etc is very very crucial. Guest posting with only quality or invaluable content should certainly be part of the marketing strategy for every online marketing campaign whose main goal is to acquire customers by showcasing and proving expertise and to build a community to add value.

I don't necessarily agree that guest posting and the use of blog rolls are bad tactics. Using a blog to provide important and relevant information to your audience is one of the best and most natural ways of driving viewership and rankings. The same can be said for link outreach.

The key is to only reach out to the most relevant sites that appear to be updated on a regular basis for any reason OTHER than link outreach. Building a rapport with someone who is passionate about, for instance, recipes is a great way to place effective blog content for a client in, say, the health food industry.

Many of the supposedly poisonous SEO tactics like using exact match anchors should come with instructions: do them carefully and in moderation and you will benefit.

I'm pretty sure Kate's point is that tactics like blog rolls are not inherently bad. When you apply the golden rule, does it make sense to link in the blog roll? Ask, "if I was a reader of my blog, would I want to see this link here?"

With regard to anchor text, I generally don't mind as a reader if keywords are in the anchor text, but I do get annoyed when it's unclear what the link is to because someone was forcing in keywords without concern for the reader.

I'd say the golden rule holds up well in both situations that you mention.

If you wish to rank well for specific keyword how will Google know what
that keyword is if there are a very few exact match anchors ?

Good
content should be standard to represent yourself well but what everyone
wants to know is how to get the site up there for a bang on the money
specific term !!!

You can see this as a post "content is king",
"quality, quality, quality" wishy washy mantra era and straight to the
point question. If you want to focus, it is becoming more difficult. A
well written guest post is a lot of work, to then have to make many of
them to widely vary the anchor is multiplying the work by 5 x !

I
am tearing my hair out here, sharing professional niche knowledge with
the world and Google repaying me by and plummeting my page position for
some competitor who would not know how to write a good article if it
slapped him in the face, something is very very wrong.

I am convinced that something has been tweaked to give more weight to a home page compared with a page created for a specific term. I have followed the do's and don't pretty well and yet appear to be penalized. I try and get as close to 1 quality professional article on a blog each 2 weeks. Trying new sites on new IP addresses and varying the text as far as is possible. When you are working with a 2 word keyword per page that is not easy... you know visit site, click to visit site, my actual name, basic url, keyword 1 (main keyword 2 words), varying the keyword to a 3 word KW etc.

It is becoming as clear as mud and it's high time some the the SEO websites made it clearer. It seems like a lot of vague info.

The issue is in your frame of mind. You start by wanting to rank for a "money term." My first question to you is: "Is your site the BEST answer for the query you want to rank for?" If you are, there should be little work you need to put into ranking for that term. If you are a good answer, but not the best, not better than everyone else, there is substantial work there. The point is that what works today is not scalable. Google and Bing are interested in companies and websites that are in it for the long haul. I don't know your specific issue, but if a competitors homepage is ranking better and your focused page is not, then there is something wrong. You can't change Google but you can change your own processes. Don't follow what everyone else says, do what's right for your users, for the searchers on that term and I can guarantee the rankings will follow. Instead of trying for a post every 2 weeks and varying the text, focus on getting the word out about your site and product/service overall. Ignore the use of anchor text, that'll come. If you want something to be natural, you have to do it naturally. There might be a month between posts, but if they are great, it'll be worth it.

I think this is fair- but the problem is also, how rarely people are actually receptive to these kinds of things in different industries.

I am focusing heavily right now in the Dental world, making the shift from plastic surgery. In terms of SEO, cross promotion, guest blogging, and all that, its a completely different world. In this world, if anyone wants to interact with me for any reason, I jump on it. Worse yet- 90% of the time someone does contact you its actually just a sales bot for a company that hooks you up with a salesmen who can't help you in anyway.I have better luck going door to door in the neighborhood then I do outreaching. Those tweets you showed? I would kill for someone hitting me up for those who could actually come through.

Compared to plastic surgery, where every major office has an SEO Manager to talk with and work with pretty easily, and tend to have a lot more control over the website.

I can empathize. I have a client in a rough industry. I've been in plastic surgery before. What I'd recommend is moving away from the topic at hand. If you want to get your client known for breast reconstruction, I'd build some relationships with breast cancer awareness places. Not pitching them breast reconstruction, not writing about it, but really being there for them as sponsors and supporters. Get the doctors to give insight about how men and women can do some natural things to take care of wrinkles. Do a piece for a mommy blog on dealing with exercise postpartum. I get much better results there. The point is to build the relationship first. Links will come later. I hope this helps somehow. But I do feel you.

Plastic Surgery is a breeze compared to Dentistry. Like I said "Compared to plastic surgery, where every major office has an SEO Manager to talk with and work with pretty easily, and tend to have a lot more control over the website."

I have been doing dentistry for a while, and I do everything to talking with businesses in the area to contacting dentists, and non-profits, cross country. I go to the expo, give cards, and take e-mail. The response rate is extremely low compared to plastic surgery. I know I can do guest blogs on baby websites talking about fluoride- that's just not really the goal.

Outreach works best when they have someone who actively deals with their SEO or marketing. In my industry, I react to even spam e-mail as the most sincere polite e-mail I could possibly get because there is no room to be picky. The point of my response is really: "Quality vs Quantity with outreach depends on the industry".

Well the part about properly compensating your influencers is one that I think everyone should definitely agree. You've got to give people proper motivation otherwise they will spit out low quality garbage.

That phrase at the beginning of the post, Kate, would have made for another title: "How Jesus would have done guest blogging", as it is one of his commandments.Said that, the Golden Rule surely is the N. 1 commandment every marketer should remember and apply in everything he does, from defining the site business model and marketing strategy to its execution.

Firstly, thanks for sharing you knowledge. I been struggling
with getting traffic to my blog and I hope that your advices will help me increase the
amount of visitors. Guest blogging seems lika a nice idea

This is all great information, I have just started an outreach program with guest posting as one of the goals of the contact.

The way I have structured the outreach is

1. Identify sites or people we would like to be identified with

2. learn what they like and what they like to share

3. Follow their social media profiles, re-tweeting or sharing things that are likely to appeal to our readers

4. Try to help them in some way - broken link on site or Spelling mistake in blog post, just point it out

5. Write a short piece about them or their recent post on our blog - ask them to review it

6. Offer them some content - written by journalists who specialize in that niche

7. Keep the relation ship going by asking for their help, advice offering them help etc.

From step 1 to step 6 (the link) has taken an average of 9 weeks, with an average of 26 points of contact per link, and the content is costing us £60 ($90) a time but it is written by an industry expert who the site owner has often heard of.

I am now testing not putting a link in the guest post (allowing the journalist to have the link instead) to see if that builds a deeper relation ship with the site owner in an attempt to get my content mentioned naturally on his site.

I have had some good success with this to-date and none of the people I have targeted have asked for a payment for the guest blog, where in the past with a cold approach I was often asked to pay $150 - 300 per guest post, and these were on sites that were not as good.

Using this slower method I am much more comfortable approaching big well known sites in my industry that I never would have approached in the past and this opens more doors as I can point to the guest posts on these sites as testimonials when I approach new sites.

I do not think I am doing anything new or revolutionary as the ideas have all come from blog posts I have read and I just put them together but I hope it is helpful to some of you.

If you can think of a stop in the process I could improve or include I would appreciate the help.

I think it is pretty darn good and other keywords on this page it holds fairly well but something happened today that blew me away (in a bad way)

I dropped from pos 2 page 1 to pos 6 on page 4 within 3 days of a Google bot crawling my site for that 1 word term (I can see it in my site log). Nothing drastic has changed it was crawled on 180113 Other keywords for the homepage retain their position.

I am constantly checking links from competitors and looking for patterns in on site wording social media etc. but am beginning to fail badly in what worked pretty well 6 months ago. Unless you can see patterns it is difficult to respond in an effective manner. I will await and check it is not some temporary anomaly but may have to a complete page re-write with similar KW density.

You could argue that this approach is not natural or a changed mindset from that which you suggest might be my "issue" but no one knows my business like I do. No SEO company would have a clue what I do even thast how niches it is.And I used a western world SEO company before and it was fine when badly written articles on 100 articles sites did the job but times had changed radically and I have had exceptional results over the last 18months and been extremely busy. It was not difficult to understand what they were doing with the articles in essence obtaining backlinks with the right anchor text. That used to be the SEO golden touch. But now something has really changed for the worse.

Maybe I am jumping too early I might need it to settle but jumping 3-4 pages down for no reason I can comprehend,it is simply bizarre and pretty alarming.

As far as it being natural well sadly it has not been, I have been doing seo for around 2-3 years. First the directories and bookmarks, then forums posts and adding real information but a link in the sig, then the not completely crappy (never spun) and not 100pct great articles (we have all been there in the early days). My niche is what you could call "insanely competitive" and very much online based.

The last 8 months I have been writing top grade blog posts and placing them on very relevant sites, rarely are my articles refused because of the quality of them.

Thanks for sharing this Kate! I have just started guest blogging and it's really not that easy. I should keep this Golden Rule in mind at all times. Guest Blogging is really worth all the time & effort when done properly :)

Hye i am new in SEO . I have really enjoyed your post regarding guest posting and comes to know what are the good features , what things we have to look for ? But can you tell me one thing what actually guest posting is in all terms ? Please put a light on my question so clearly so that my query got resolved and make me better understand.

You wrote: "A good community means that there is value in the site and they are
probably a well-ranked site. I haven't found a study that proves that a
strong community means a strong site, but I am debating doing a study
myself, so watch this space."

I would like to see that study, too.

{I tried to make an account with the name Shara alone but the name was already taken. So I had to put Mommy Perks into my name. Not my first choice, as it appears to be spammy. Sorry about that.) :-)

Hi Shara! So glad you got to see the post. If I have the time, I will definitely be doing that study. I think it's something to disprove rather than prove. Meaning I can come up with tons of sites that are strong and have strong communities, I just need to prove that there aren't sites with strong communities and are weak in terms of domain strength. Great post, so glad you wrote it! And have a great week!

Here's an interesting thing... Mommy Perks was first started by someone else back in 2005, as a coupon/review site. She also started selling franchise spots. I bought the company in 2009, shut down the franchise option and re-did everything (according to my own background, which didn't focus on coupons, discounts, etc). I have now completely shut down our Perks Directory because my husband and I run our own business and we focus elsewhere on our B2B site. Anyway, long story short: Mommy Perks started in 2005 and was pretty much only Arizona based. We went to trade shows and events, growing the name. Over the years I grew to Global membership/readers. I was often told, "Your site is just a tiny thing and doesn't rank as high as other sites." But I knew: my community was strong. They were loyal. I became friends with many of my clients/readers, outside the online world. We met in person and I talked at business events, etc.

I have grown my email list organically, my twitter following organically, my facebook following organically, etc. Some of my readers have been around since 2005. Believe it or not. Some of my small business clients have been around for almost as long. I think my domain is now considered pretty strong (going between a rank of 3 and 4) but my community was always strong. Even when my ranking was at a 1 and my traffic hardly existed. I had to work on my content and SEO to prove myself with search engines but behind those scenes, my community was active and crazy loyal. My clients and friends promoted me, non stop, until I had built up. (I have helped them do the same, yes)

I give credit to my community for helping my domain get stronger. Not the other way around. This may be highly unusual but that's okay. I prefer to be different. :-)

I think you should promote your guest posts as a writer! I have to do some tweeting myself soon on this post actually. It's a guest post for me. Of course I wasn't looking for any links doing it, but Moz is not a site of mine (I don't work for Moz), therefore still a guest post. Interacting with the community and sharing your work is always something that should happen.

Hmmmmm. What is the point of posting on an seo site if you are an seo agency. beyond PA, (Peer Authority), what are you gaining? If you are looking to guest post, target areas where you are likely to get traffic from. Google looks to traffic and bounce rate a hell of a lot nowadays. A strong link with neither traffic nor sticking traffic is not that valuable, even if it is from a strong site. I make sure my clients are placed where they can gain customers. PR, DA etc all pail into insignificance to traffic and sticking traffic now. eg. You are an seo agent, post on a dog groomers blog, and explain how dog groomers can utilise local seo and gain customers. Niche related is only valuable if it is going to attract customers, and sticking traffic. Not sure how much of tha you get from peer sites.

Best option to promote through social media and specially through your g+ circles. If post is on a good site and content is relevant and informational and gets good no. share & retweet, job is half done.

Is your content worthwhile? Is teaching something to those in the community are waiting for learning something?Users can also read posts to get advices even for the life in generalBefore writing, we always have to ask ourselves, can I give something to my readers with this post Im going to write?